CHAPTER I THE WAY. THE ART OF MEDITATION By Joel S. Goldsmith

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1 I II III IV V THE ART OF MEDITATION By Joel S. Goldsmith CONTENTS PART ONE Meditation: The Practice The Way The Purpose The Practice The Indissoluble Union The Difficulties CHAPTER I THE WAY Most men and women are convinced that there is a divine Power of some sort operating in human affairs; but they are not sure what it is, nor do they know how to bring this divine Presence and Power into their daily experience. There was a time when many of these people were content to believe in a God dwelling in a remote heaven, a God whom they would not meet until after death. In this practical age, however, very few are satisfied with that limited concept of God. ART TWO Meditation: The Experience Foreword: The Meditation of My Heart V VII VIII IX X The Earth Is the Lord's For God So Loved the World Ye Are the Temple The Silver Is Mine The Place Whereon Thou Standest For Love Is of God For He Is Thy Life Fear Not XI XII XIII XIV The Tabernacle of God XV The Beauty of Holiness PART THREE Meditation: The Fruits XVI The Fruit of the Spirit XVII Illumination, Communion, and Union XVIII A Circle of Christhood The world is full of discord. The question is asked again find again: Why, if there is a God, does this God permit disease, war, famine, and disaster. How can all these evils be, if God is good, if God is life, if God is love. How can there be that kind of a God and the horrors of human experience. People throughout all time have attempted to solve this riddle, but there is no solution; there is no answer except that the world has not known God. We can never for a moment believe that if people in this world had a realization of God, they would have discord and inharmony, too. Discord and inharrnony come into our life because of our ignorance of God. As we acquaint now ourselves with Him, we find the secret of harmonious existence. People throughout all time have sought freedom, peace, and plenty; but their search has been primarily through the feverish activity of the human mind. Pleasure and satisfaction have been artificially created, and because of their

2 artificiality, they are neither permanent nor real. Living out from the level of the mind, there must be a continuous round of new pleasures, new faces, and new scenes. There is rarely a truly joyous moment, nor are there periods of rest and relaxation. Freedom, peace, and plenty are not dependent upon circumstances or conditions. Men have been free in chains; they have been free under slavery and oppression; they have found peace in the midst of war; they have survived floods and famine; they have prospered in periods of depression and panic. When the Soul of man is free, it carries him through Red Seas and desert experiences to the Promised Land of spiritual peace. Freedom is a condition of the Soul. As we turn to the kingdom of our inner Self, we find the reign of divine Power in the outer world. As we seek peace within, we find harmony without. We reach the depth of the Soul, and It takes over our existence, providing activity and newness of life, a peace and serenity, the like of which we have never dreamed. We then have achieved the freedom of the Soul, the freedom of grace. All through the ages there have been spiritually endowed men and women the mystics of the world who have known conscious union with God, and who have brought the presence and power of God into their actual experience. Always there has been a Moses, an Elijah, a Jesus, a John, or a Paul, but none of them had many followers. None of them was ever widely known or his teaching widely practiced, during his own time or for years afterward. These spiritual masters devoted their lives to giving us the truth which has brought us to our present state of consciousness. The light that we have today is the result of the light which has come down through all time. There are many spiritual teachers who have left no record, and about whom we have no knowledge; but there are many whom we can identify: Moses, Elijah, Jesus, John, and Paul, mentioned above; Eckhart, Boehme, Fox, and other mystics of the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries; as well as the great leaders and revelators of more recent years. No one person has given the light to the world, but each of these great spiritual prophets has been a beam of light contributing to the whole light. These great spiritual leaders are all in agreement on the basic principles and teachings with which most of us are acquainted: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; thou shalt do unto others as thou wouldst have others do unto you; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not commit adultery. They did not teach that we all be of the same nationality, color, or creed; they taught the principle of love and cooperation. If this principle of love and cooperation were really practiced and lived by the millions of people who accept the teachings of the Christ, war would be an impossibility. It is a paradox that, thousands of years after these revelations of truth, strife and struggle continue to be the motivating force in the world. With this vast reservoir of mystical wisdom available, we should expect that after all these years the world would be enjoying freedom and abundance. But the principles of these teachings have not always been

3 practiced as they were revealed; instead they have been crystallized into form, and gradually they were adulterated, sinking at times to the lowest level of human thinking rather than rising to the heights to which these truths ultimately lead. The original principle taught by the Master Christian revealed that the kingdom of God, the presence and power of God, is within. Jesus called this presence and power "Father" "the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Paul, using a different term, said, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." By whatever name It is called God, Father, or the Christ It is to be found within. The kingdom of God is within us; the whole of the Godhead is to be found within our individual being, not in holy mountains nor yet in the temple at Jerusalem, but within us. If we really believed this great wisdom, we should be willing to leave the world for a season, until such time as we could reach, touch, and respond to the Father within. As we begin to recognize our good as the gift of God, we let the reasoning, thinking, planning mind relax. We listen for the still small voice, ever watching for the angel of the Lord, the Christ, the Father within. It will never leave us nor forsake us. It is our permanent dispensation. This listening is the art of meditation, in the learning of which we come to a place of transition where truth leaves the mind and enters the heart. In other words, there is no longer merely an intellectual knowledge about truth; but truth becomes a living thing within our being. To illustrate: Everybody in the world knows the word "God," but there are few people in the world who know God. For most of us God has remained a word, a term, a power outside the self; God, Itself, has not become a living reality except to those few people who are known as mystics. Meditation leads us to an experience in which we know that there is a God. It leads us to a point where we are as convinced of the reality of God as we are of the fact that we are here reading this book. If all the newspapers in the United States carried headlines tonight saying that we were not in this place at this particular time, this announcement would not alter our knowledge of the fact that we are here. God is as much of a reality, as much of a presence, as much of a power, as much of an entity and individuality as we are, and God can be just as well known by us as we can know ourselves or one another. From the moment that we know God through experience, life changes for us, because there is a relaxation of our personal selfhood. A feeling arises of something other than Ourselves operating in us, through us, and for us something greater than ourselves. This has been the experience of all mystics. They have actually known God; they have felt God's presence; and God has become an active power in their lives. There are not many of such people in the world. If there were but a few more who really knew God, perhaps those few might be enough to save the world. According to Scripture, ten righteous men have saved a city. The mystics' conscious awareness of the presence and power of God is the product of experience: it is not mere conversation

4 about God's availability; it is not only an affirmation or a statement; it is not merely a platitude or a cliche; it is a living fact. Our search for God, our seeking the kingdom of God, is an evidence of our own faith in the presence and power of God, even though we do not yet have a knowledge of it through actual experience. Those who are not on the spiritual path do not have that confidence. Only those who have attained an inner conviction that there is a God are led to the search for God. These seekers may not necessarily have attained the realization of God, but at least there is that inner certainty: "This is the way; there is a God." So the search begins, and it begins in different ways. How it begins depends upon our background; it depends upon where we happen to be at any given moment and what is going on in our particular world around us. There have been people whose search began in orthodox churches and some of them have found the answer there. They have discovered the kingdom within themselves, but have continued working in the church as a form of service and sometimes as a form of gratitude. Some have found God through an intellectual approach, and a few have found a purely spiritual way. Others have come through teachings that are a combination of the intellectual and the spiritual. There are those who have come to the spiritual path through books, and there are those who have come through living teachers, while others have made contact with the spiritual saints and seers who have never died. To know the truth as so many words, quotations, passages, or theories is one thing; but it is an entirely different thing when, through meditation, the Word takes root in our consciousness and comes forth as spiritual fruitage. We are told that the fruits of the Spirit are "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith." It is really true that when the Spirit has been touched or when It has touched us, then the fruitage comes forth in the form of harmony, wholeness, completeness, and perfection. The purpose of this book is to help students practice the art of meditation by which the Word takes root, so that they come into an actual awareness, an actual consciousness of living in the Spirit. Our object is to attain a measure of that mind which was in Christ Jesus, and then let It do with us what It will. It is to reach that consciousness in which Paul revealed, "I live yet not I, Christ liveth my life"; or "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." In other words, the activity of the Spirit comes alive in us, and It takes over: we are no longer good and we are no longer bad; we are no longer sick, but neither are we well. We are at a stage which transcends the pairs of opposites. In spiritual wisdom there are no pairs of opposites. God is, and, therefore, there is no concern as to whether or not we can reach God, because there is nothing for which we need to reach God: the day is already beautiful; the fruit is already on the trees; the flowers are already blooming; the tides are

5 flowing; the sun and the moon and the stars are in the heavens; harmony is. In this state of spiritual consciousness we come to that place where we rest and relax in the realization, "God's in his heaven all's right with the world!" In that realization, we withdraw from the struggle for the things of this earth. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.. he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." We must seek the attainment of that same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead, not by talking about it, or declaring it to be so, not teaching or preaching it but by having that mind. The attaining of that mind requires effort, plus the grace of God. The grace of God is the most important factor, because without it, no one would have the fortitude to continue on the path leading to God-realization. Without the grace of God, no one would have the desire even to begin the search, let alone to pursue the arduous steps which must follow. There is an area of consciousness revealed in meditation through which we are instantly one with God and with all spiritual being and creation, and through which we find all forms of good instantly available. This area of consciousness has been described as a Sea of Spirit, the universal or divine Soul, the Father within. In achieving conscious contact with this Sea of Spirit or the Father within, we find divine Love pouring Itself into expression, so that we no longer live by personal effort alone, but by grace. Rather than seeking our good from persons or things, we tap this universal Soul and become beholders of Its activity, pouring forth as the ideas which become the human forms of good necessary to our present experience. It is only as we learn to look within to this Infinite Invisible that we begin to understand the nature of grace. Instead of seeking or desiring something already existing as form or effect, let us learn to turn within and let our good unfold from the divine Source, the Infinite Unseen. Let the business and professional man look to the Divine within; let the sick and the sinner seek healing and perfection from within. Let each one of us ever be alert, watching consciousness unfold as new and richer forms of good, experiencing the abundance of life by grace. To understand that Soul is the eternal storehouse of all good is to permit the activity of the Christ to function in our experience. Let us draw our good from the infinity of our own being, from the kingdom within. Touching that center, the Father reveals our heritage as "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" to all the heavenly riches. This is to live by grace, the gift of God. The children of God always live by grace. The secret of grace is contact with the Infinite Invisible, the universal center of being within us. This is the experience of the Christ. In mystical literature, this spiritual experience is called Illumination, Cosmic Consciousness, or Christ-Consciousness; in the New Testament, it is spoken of as being "born again," or rebirth. Reading and studying inspirational literature and scripture, as well as frequent pondering and meditating on God and God's

6 creation, lead to actual communion with the Father, which brings to our consciousness this touch of the Christ. Keeping the mind stayed on God leads to an awareness; sometimes, there is even a voice, and we know that "he performeth the thing that is appointed for me to do." Those who have attained this light have no further problems of existence, since now they are fed, clothed, and housed by the infinite fountain of life which we call the Christ. This moment of grace cannot be adequately described, since it appears in different ways to different people; but all who have received this light understand the experiences of the illumined of all ages. The activity of the Christ, resulting in a life by grace, is by no means limited to the past. Today, many men and women are experiencing the Christ and are living lives of beauty, health, harmony, and joy by grace. With truth now available to all who can read, spiritual illumination is a possibility to every earnest seeker. "Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace." The awareness of the Father within is the beginning of a life by grace. To live by grace enables us to do greater things and to achieve better results in all our activities. This spiritual impulsion and divine guidance permit us to drop all concern for our personal welfare, or for that of our families or nation. Freedom from fear, danger, or lack comes only as the Comforter appears. The voice of Truth utters Itself within us, and It becomes the "peace be still" to every storm in our experience. It is as if there were a Presence always going before us to "make the crooked place straight," to make the desert "blossom as the rose," and to open the doors of opportunity, service, and welcome. As the activity of the Christ is manifested by greater and still greater deeds of spiritual power, our trust and faith grow by leaps and bounds. Secure in this inner conviction, the struggle against every form of discord ceases, and we live not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit by grace. A few people are born into the world with some measure of Christconsciousness, but anyone with sufficient perseverance, application, and fidelity may develop and cultivate a Christ-awareness, that "mind which was also in Christ Jesus." It does, however, require devotion, consecration, and a receptivity which recognizes and welcomes the Christ as It touches and awakens our Soul into newness of life. In the silence of our being the Christ speaks and we hear, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.... I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." This consciousness of God's presence is developed by patience and perseverance, in quietness and stillness, and by abstaining from the use of mental power or physical might, so that the Spirit may function. "Be still, and know that I am God." "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God...." By grace are you saved.

7 THE WAYS To every man there openeth A Way, and Ways, and a Way, And the High Soul climbs the High Way, And the Low Soul gropes the Low, And in between, on the misty flats, The rest drift to and fro. But to every man there openeth A High Way, and a Low, And every man decideth The Way his soul shall go. --John Oxenham* *From Selected Poems of John Oxenham, edited by Charles L. Wallis (Harper, 1948). Used by permission of Miss Erica Oxenham and Harper & Brothers. CHAPTER II THE PURPOSE The purpose of meditation is to attain divine grace. Once this grace has been attained in a measure, it takes over our experience and lives our life, performs those things which are given us to do, and makes the crooked places straight. We no longer live by bread alone, but by this inner grace. Satisfying relationships, abundant supply, successful business activity, and creative endeavor are the tangible effects of grace. First must come the inner grace before the things of this world can be added to us; but we can never receive the grace of God so long as we seek it for the purpose of demonstration, that is, seeking God in order to possess some person or thing, or to achieve some place. That is the reason meditation can never be used to demonstrate an automobile, more money, or a better position: meditation is for the purpose of realizing God. In meditation God is revealed as the life of individual being. God is the embodiment of all good. In achieving the experience of God, our good appears as whatever the need may be. We fail if we attempt to gain any thing separate and apart from God. God, Itself, is the good. Prayer or meditation for material things and persons cannot be answered by a God of Spirit. Such an objective defeats the purpose of meditation. Scripture tells us that the natural man receiveth not the things of God. Who is the natural man but the human being, the prodigal son, still deep in material consciousness, praying that his materiality may be made a little better, a little richer, a little more, or a little less? We pray to be stouter or we pray to be thinner; we pray to have more money, seldom to have less, although that might be a very spiritual prayer. The point is that we pray for an improvement or an increase of that very materiality of which God has no knowledge, and such prayer is not answered. Very often our human desires, if fulfilled, would leave us unsatisfied, because as human beings we do not possess the wisdom to know the things of which we have need. It is the Father within who is all wisdom and all love. To be effective, prayer must be addressed to a God of Spirit, and, therefore, that for which we pray must

8 be of a spiritual nature. Let us remember this every time we turn to God in meditation; let us measure the quality of our prayer by the degree of spiritual illumination we are seeking, and from that we shall know whether or not we may expect fulfillment. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." The promise is fulfillment, but let us be sure that the fulfillment for which we are praying is a spiritual fulfillment, and then we shall not pray to a spiritual God to improve our human-hood; but we shall obey the scriptural injunction to let the Spirit bear witness within us: "for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.... " It is not really we who pray or meditate at all; the Spirit meditates within us, and we simply open our consciousness to let the Spirit reveal our need and its fulfillment. Therein is the secret. How different that is from doing mental work, declaring or affirming that this or that shall come to pass -- and now, this minute. Rather, in going into meditation, our attitude should be that of the little Hebrew boy, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant hearetb." That is the true attitude with which to enter into meditation opening our consciousness to God and letting God fulfill Itself within us. Let God utter Its Word within our being not our words, but the Word. We shall find that Word to be quick and sharp and powerful; it does not return unto us void. It does the work whereunto it is sent, but it must be the Word of God, not your desire or my desire. The true aspirant on the spiritual path has no desire other than the fulfillment of God, the realization of God, the experience of the Christ. How could there possibly be an unfufilled need if the Christ is operating in our consciousness? The Christ must fulfill Itself. One desire alone is legitimate and that is the realization of this activity of the Christ in our consciousness. "The Father within me, he doeth the works." The Father is within me and the Father is within you; then why is it that the works are not done? There is one thing needful, and that is our conscious realization of Omnipresence. The activity of God is within us, the presence of God, the power of God; but we have built up a state of consciousness consisting of layers and layers of material sense. We have not succeeded in breaking through these layers to reach the atmosphere and altitude of God within us and, until we do so, we shall fail in our meditation and miss the path to fulfillment. Most of us come to the search for God with a purely material outlook on life: concerned that the heart beat so many times a minute, that the digestive and eliminative organs function in a prescribed way, that our supply consist of so many dollars; always believing that satisfaction can be found in the external world. Some believe that money will bring that satisfaction; some believe that fame is the answer; still others believe that fulfillment lies in good health. How often is it said: "If only this pain could be stopped, then I really could begin the search for God. I can't do it while I am in such pain," or "If only my rent were taken care of, then I could be at peace and would be able to search for God." In

9 other words, these people are implying that the realization of God is dependent upon some physical or financial condition. Evidence to the con-trary is the fact that there are people with millions of dollars who have not discovered God; there are people in perfect health who have not known God; nor have they found either completeness, peace, or fulfillment. That is the state of consciousness of most of us as we come to the search for truth. Let us reverse the picture: Let us begin the search for God; and in finding God, see the pain disappear; watch the lack, the limitation, and the sin vanish. As long as we are merely trying to exchange physical discord for physical harmony, we can have no conception of what the kingdom of God is, of spiritual riches, or of spiritual health. We must begin our meditation with the recognition that neither health nor wealth is the object of our search for God. Any desire for things or persons will prevent or delay our entrance into the spiritual kingdom, but the steadfast remembrance that the goal we are seeking is God realization will open the way and make a highway for our God. In that realization, we find all things added unto us, or to be more accurate, we find all things included within us. We must realize that we have no objective other than the achievement of the kingdom of God, that we have no demonstration to make except the demonstration of our spiritual Selfhood; but that we must demonstrate: first of all, for our own development; and secondly, as a witness to the world that God is individual Selfhood, and that this state of being may be attained by all those who are ready to give up the world, not by removing themselves to some remote spot, but by giving up their desires for that which the world can give. As students of spiritual wisdom, the important question is: What is the best way, if there is a best way, of achieving this realization of our true Selfhood? Is there a short cut? Is there a path that leads to God-realization, a path that can be trod here on earth? Can it be achieved here on earth? And the answer is yes. Not only is there a way of accomplishing this objective, but there is a short cut. That short cut, so simple and yet so very difficult, is to perform a bit of mental surgery on ourselves and cut away all our desires. Let us take a good sharp scalpel and cut out of ourselves all desire for person, place, thing, circumstance, or condition. Every desire must be cut away in order that only one remains: to know Thee, whom to know aright is life eternal. Let us set our whole heart and soul and mind on the realization of God rather than on the attainment of some form of good. As we attain that realization, we enjoy all the good things of life which come forth, without becoming slaves to them or becoming attached to them and without fear of losing them. No one can ever lose his wealth, his health, or his life once he has attained a touch of the Christ. Let our prayer be: One thing have I desired, that I might know Thee. One thing! My heart cries out, "God, open Yourself to me, reveal

10 Yourself to me. I care not whether You reveal Yourself in wealth or in health, in poverty or in sickness; only reveal Thyself. In Thy Presence is security, safety, peace, and joy." In meditation we are seeking the grace of God and nothing but the grace of God. This grace is not found in the human mind, nor is it found in such peace as the world can give. Making statements and reading books about it do not bring it forth. These may be of assistance in leading us to a point where we are prepared in the silence to receive the grace of God, but it is meditation which lifts us to a state of spiritual apprehension where divine grace takes over. "If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you," then are we children of God. As human beings, we are cut off from God and for that reason do not come under the law of God and do not experience the blessings of God's presence and power. It is the Son of God, the spiritual image and likeness, which is held in the bosom of the Father. We have wandered away from our Father's household and squandered our divine substance in a personal sense of "I." Now, in order to realize our sonship with God, we must take the path of return to the Father's house that same journey the prodigal son had to make that we may be clothed with the robe and receive again the jewel of adoption. How do we become the Sons of God? How do we awaken the Christ, or Son of God, which always has been, is, and always will be our true identity, even though it has been hidden from sight during this period of mortality in which we are sleeping? To do this requires effort. We must abandon all our previous concepts of life for my name's sake." We must get up from the banquet with the swine, leave behind all thoughts, people, and activities of the swinish world, and return to the Father. It is the nature of the human being to love self-indulgence: ease, comfort, riches, intemperance, gluttony, indolence, and sensuality. These operate in our consciousness as a sense of separation from God. It is not actually separation from God, because we can no more be separated from God than a gold ring can be separated from the gold of which it is formed. Gold is the ring; gold constitutes the ring. There is no possible way to remove the gold from the ring without destroying the ring, because there is not gold and a ring; there is only a gold ring. So it is with us. We cannot be separated from God, because there is no we. Actually, there is no such thing in all the world as you or me as individuals standing alone. God being infinite, God is all there is. God constitutes you and me; God constitutes our life, mind, soul, and being, just as gold constitutes the ring. Gold is the substance; the ring is the form. God is the substance; the individual is the form as which God appears. God is the essence of our being the life, soul, mind, spirit, law, continuity, and activity. God is the all and all of individual being, whether of saint or sinner. The degree of sainthood expressed by an individual is wholly dependent upon the degree of conscious realization of oneness with the Father. The capacity for sin in an individual is dependent upon the degree of his sense of separation from God. As

11 a matter of fact, this sense of separation is all there is to human hood. We are not human beings as we seem to be; we are pure spiritual being. It is not that there are two separate beings, the human being and the spiritual being; it is only that a human being is entertaining a sense of separation from God. We cannot be separated from God, but we can entertain a sense of separation from God. The moment that sense of separation begins to disappear, Christhood or divine son ship is revealed. The return of the prodigal takes place wholly within one's self as an activity of consciousness, and the moment one sets his feet in the direction of the Father's house, he has entered the spiritual path. Let no one take credit for being on the spiritual path. Were it not for the grace of God, one would not be reaching out toward the realization of his divine son ship. In the experience of every person, there comes a certain moment when he is penetrated by a ray of God, when a touch of God breaks through into his consciousness, not because of himself, but in spite of himself. From the moment that ray touches him, the end is inevitable: he will find his way right to the throne of God. To human sense, the spiritual way of life seems impossible of achievement, ephemeral, and intangible. But in reality, the most tangible thing, the most real thing in all the world is Spirit or God. Once this is perceived, the things of this world the dollar bills we use for exchange, our homes, and our relationships take their rightful place as outer symbols of grace or effects of Spirit. It is these symbols or effects which change. As long as men and women live by bread alone, by the strife and struggle involved in human activity; as long as they are dependent exclusively on symbols or effects, they will discover eventually that these worldly possessions waste away, are consumed, and become as nothing. We see the results of a dependence on material things as we look into the faces of the men and women who are living by these effects, placing their reliance on the health of their bodies, the wealth of their pocket-books, and the things of this world. In contrast with these people, a few stand out, here and there, who have an inner light by which they live, an inner hope, expectation, or glory. This spiritual light is easily detected: We see it in the eyes; we hear it in the voice; we observe it in the vitality and vigor of the body. Although this Presence is invisible, It is within every person; no one in the world is without It; It is available to everyone who has ears to hear and eyes to see, to everyone who is receptive to divine grace. The whole purpose of our existence is to be a fitting instrument through which God's glory may appear. We shall never fulfill ourselves in life by trying to express our individuality; fulfillment lies in letting the Infinite Invisible bring Itself through into expression. Then we do not strive and struggle to glorify ourselves but every time we meditate, it is as if we were to say:

12 Father, "I can of mine own self do nothing.... My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me." I have no wisdom of my own, Father; I have no power; I have no judgment; I have no health; and I have no wealth of my own. I am sitting here to let infinity flow. Our function is to abide in that inner realization and let harmony appear. As our vision is on the unfolding of the Christ, It appears outwardly as a better, healthier, or wealthier human being. But we are not deceived by appearances, because we are not looking for a change in the human picture. Meditation is not an attempt to turn sickness into health or lack into abundance. The vision always is on the one invisible Christ at the center of our being, here and now. Any meditation that has within itself a single trace of a desire to get something from God or to acquire something through God is no longer meditation. Good is to be realized, yes, but not to be achieved: the infinity of good is already where I am; the kingdom of God is within me. Locked up inside of our being is the presence and power of God, the whole of the Godhead, just as perfume is locked up in a flower. As the flower opens the perfume or the fragrance escapes. Everyone has the allness of the Godhead locked up within his own being not just a part of it. God cannot be divided; God is indivisible. God is infinite, but God is indivisible. The allness of God is in one tiny leaf in every leaf: the allness of God is in every individual on the face of the globe. Were this not true, there would have been less of God on earth when the population was only 10 per cent of what it is today, and, by the same token, there would be twice as much of God on earth when the population is doubled. No, there was just as much of God in the world a million years ago as there will be a million years hence. The infinite allness of God is wherever one individual is. That is why it is said that one Christ Jesus can lead a million people into heaven, because one Christ Jesus is the infinite individual Son of God and shows forth all that God is. "Son, thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine" is not addressed to a group but to an individual. God, in Its infinite allness, is embodied in the Son of God, in whom is our spiritual identity. As we learn to turn within and let this imprisoned perfume escape this activity of the Christ, this beauty of God then does it come into visible being. When we no longer search for the peace that the world can give, but seek only "my peace," the gates of consciousness open to admit the spiritual light which becomes the life of our being and our body. Many people desire spiritual power in order to enjoy more harmonious experiences. Their purpose in seeking God usually is to enjoy more and better earthly things, to catch larger fish in their nets bigger fish, better fish. But the basis of our work is to "leave your nets," to leave this search for more and better human good and open consciousness to the spiritual realities. Then the things which come to us in the outer world are the fruits of an inward grace. Grace can only be attained by a state of inner silence, a state of inner awareness and receptivity; therefore it is necessary for us to

13 prepare ourselves for the experience of receiving that grace. This is the whole purpose of meditation. The amount of illumined force and power that flows through us is determined by divine grace. Whether or not we reach the final goal of illumination is not our problem. Some will seek and strive until they exhaust themselves and yet will not attain it; others will go along easily and steadily; and a few will spontaneously burst out all over with the springtime of the Christconsciousness. The experience of the Christ is one that is achieved purely through grace. In whatever degree it comes, it comes as the gift of God. It does not come because we earn it; it does not come because we deserve it; it does not come primarily because we are good men or women in fact, it is often likely to come to the sinful one, because the inner struggle of the sinner may be greater than the struggle of the good man, and such a struggle is often highly rewarded. The only responsibility that we have is that our desire be for the Christexperience, and that that desire be shown forth by the sincerity of our study and the depth of our meditation and devotion. That is the extent of our responsibility. The Christ-experience is purely the gift of God. No one earns it; no one deserves it; and no one knows why it comes to some and why it does not come to others. In the experience of every earnest student, there comes a period of initiation; that is, there comes a period of the opening of the soul. It may be achieved through something that is heard, something that is read, or it may come through direct contact with the consciousness of a spiritual teacher. When it comes, the student needs no further help from sources outside of himself. His entire teaching is received from within: his entire illumination, healing power, and regenerative power come from within. From that moment on, he becomes a blessing to others along his way, bringing healing and comfort to them. As he goes deeper into the Spirit, he awakens in them this same Christhood: "I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto me." In proportion as any individual receives spiritual light, that light becomes a law unto those who are within his orbit. Everyone who has ever brought about a healing through spiritual means has been the light, and it was the light in his consciousness that brought about the healing. Whatever degree of light we realize, automatically makes us, in that degree, a light to all those who touch our consciousness. That is the purpose of meditation: that each one may attain a higher degree of that light through the experience of the Christ. Once we have achieved this contact with our inner Being, we are free: we are in bondage to no man, no circumstance, no condition. We are free in Christ and we can then say: Christ liveth my life. What difference does it make whether or not there are periods of depression or periods of prosperity, floods or droughts? Christ liveth my life. It leadeth mc beside the still waters; It maketh me to lie down in green pastures. A thousand may fall at my left hand and ten thousand at my

14 right hand; still it will not come nigh me. I have made that contact. I am dying daily to my human-hood; I am being reborn of the Spirit; I am being guided, directed, fed, maintained, sustained, healed, and saved by this inner light this inner illumination. The secret is the awakening of the sleeping Christ, and that is the purpose of meditation. CHAPTER III THE PRACTICE here are many forms of meditation leading to the awakening of the sleeping Christ within. There is no one way suitable to all people. Each person must ultimately find the way which appeals to his particular consciousness. All methods call forth that deep sense of humility which knows "I can of mine own self do nothing." Satisfactory meditation requires a letting go of personal selfhood, with its egotistic claim to possessing a wisdom of its own, in order that the Power which we call the Father within can take over. This Power is within us, not within our body, but within our consciousness, and through meditation we permit It to escape from within, that It may act on the without and become the saviour to our experience. The initial stage of meditation may be a contemplation of God: the beauty of God's universe, the law of God, and the activity of God. Our life becomes that of a beholder, beholding the glory of God in all things in the green grass, in the gentle breeze, in the turbulence of the ocean, and in the calm of the night. In this contemplative state of being, we cannot behold anything in this world, without at the same moment recognizing its cause, the invisible spiritual activity, which produced it. We should never look at a sunrise or a sunset, without instantly realizing the spiritual nature of that which brought it into expression God, the creative Principle of the mountains, the skies, and the seas; God, the creative Principle of that which fills the air with birds and stocks the seas with fish. If we live continuously in the contemplation of the invisible Presence and Power underlying all things, this very place whereon we stand is holy ground. As we ponder the glory of God, contemplate His wonders, our mind is stayed on God. Fewer and fewer extraneous thoughts thrust themselves upon our consciousness. We are able to sit for many minutes, sometimes for as long as an hour, finding ourselves at peace in our contemplation of God and the beauty of the spiritual universe. Contemplation lifts our consciousness into an atmosphere of receptivity, into a consciousness where miracles can take place. The conscious thinking mind comes to a stop, and the invisible Presence and Power is given an opportunity to function. Until that It, that invisible Selfhood, that invisible Presence and Power, is permitted to operate in consciousness, we are merely functioning on the mental level. The human mind cannot be the avenue for the activity of the Soul: a higher consciousness must be reached. Through this higher consciousness,

15 through that mind which was in Christ Jesus, the Soul reveals Itself and Its activity as our individual experience. That which imparts itself to us from the inner consciousness is power, not the thoughts we think, not our statements or beliefs; but that which reveals itself from within on the inner plane is the power, with signs following. This inner consciousness is without boundary, and, by rising to a higher level of consciousness, we become aware of that which lies far beyond our immediate knowledge. This higher consciousness is unlimited and imparts its wisdom to us infinitely and eternally. It is that insulated place within our own being, where the ceaseless activity of the outer world does not intrude. If we are faithful in the practice of contemplation and the simpler forms of meditation, this practice will lead us from one form of meditation to another, until we arrive at the actual experience of hearing the still small voice, of receiving divine guidance from within, and of being divinely led every step of the way. Let us begin by sitting in a comfortable position. Some people prefer a straight chair, even a hard one, so that they are compelled to sit in an upright position; whereas others find themselves more comfortable in an armchair. Keep the feet flat on the floor; hold the body erect, with the hands resting in the lap. In this natural, relaxed, but alert position, begin your meditation with some passage of scripture that may come to your thought, or, if you like, you may open the Bible or a book of spiritual wisdom and read for a short time. You may read only one paragraph, or you may need to read ten pages before some particular thought attracts your attention. When this occurs, close your book and take that thought into your meditation. Think about it; hold it right in front of you; repeat it to yourself. Ask yourself: Why did this particular quotation come to me? Does it have an inner meaning? What is its significance to me at this time? As you continue meditating another statement may come to your attention. Consider both of these thoughts: Is there any relationship between them? Is there any coherence? Why did this quotation follow the first one? By this time probably a third idea and then a fourth will have come; and all these thoughts will have come out of your awareness, out of your consciousness. In this short period of meditation which may have been of only a minute's duration, you have experienced God revealing Itself; you have opened yourself to divine Intelligence and Love. This is the Word of God which is quick and sharp and powerful. To have received one statement of truth from the depths of our own being is evidence that we have had a degree of realization of God; peace and quiet descend upon us; and a sense of wellbeing and assurance well up within us. This form of meditation, if practiced faithfully, opens our consciousness to permit God to function in our life, to permit Christ to live our life but it must be practiced. It is necessary, therefore, to return to our meditation at our first opportunity, and to repeat the process in the middle of the day and again in the

16 evening. We may find that we are unable to sleep continuously throughout the night. In the middle of the night, the demand comes, "Meditate." These periods of silence, reflection, introspection, meditation, and finally communion prepare us to receive the inner grace. Even though we seem to be making no progress in these threeor four-minute periods of meditation during the day or night, even though we seem to feel no response, let us not become discouraged, because we have no way of judging the results of our efforts in terms of a single period of meditation or even after a week or a month of this practice. To expect immediate results from the practice of meditation would be the same as expecting to play Bach or Beethoven after the first music lesson. Would it not be absurd, after the first six hours of practicing the scales, to give up in despair, because we have not achieved immediate proficiency in an art which requires a high degree of technical skill? If we were serious in our desire to master this art, we would recognize that from the moment we began the practice of our scales, something was taking place in both mind and muscle. It might require a whole year of practice before any degree of skill was attained. The final achievement cannot be measured in terms of the hourly or daily or even monthly periods of practice. So it is with meditation. We have made a beginning the very first time that we close our eyes and realize: I am seeking the grace of God; I am seeking the Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. I know not what to pray for, so I do not pray for anything of this world. I listen for Thy voice wait for Thy Word. This form of meditation repeated a dozen times a day would eventually change our entire life, and it is possible that changes might be evident within a month. Every time we turn to that inner center, we are recognizing that we, of our own self, can do nothing; we are seeking the kingdom within. This is true humility, true prayer, an acknowledgment of the nothingness of human wisdom, human power, and human strength. It is acknowledging that wisdom, power, and strength come from the Infinite Invisible. These periods of silence create an atmosphere of Spirit in which the activity of Spirit, without our knowing it or having any awareness of it, goes before us to make the desert blossom as the rose. Here is an example of a simple form of meditation in which we begin with a central idea, theme, or quotation and ponder it until its inner meaning is revealed: "I can of mine own self do nothing.... The Father within me, he doeth the works." The meaning of the first part is immediately apparent; but what is meant by the statement that the Father within me doeth the works? What is the Father within me? Who is this Father within me? We know that when Jesus made that statement he was referring to God. It must mean, then, that God within me doeth the works. Jesus said that it is your Father and my Father, so he seems to be telling me that there is a

17 God-power something within that doeth the works. The same Father that was in Christ Jesus is also in me. This Father within me, this He, is greater than he that is in the world, greater than the problems of the world. The Life, intelligence, and Wisdom that is within me is greater than he that is in the world, greater than my enemies, greater than my ills, greater than my ignorance, greater than my fears, greater than my doubts, even greater than my sins. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." This Christ is the Father within me, the divine Power within, which Jesus said "will never leave thee nor forsake thee." The Father within, the Christ which strengtheneth me, will never leave me nor forsake me. Before Abraham was, this Father was within me, and It is with me even unto the end of the world. It is a Presence and a Power that has been with me from the beginning of time, even when I did not know It was there, and It will be with me throughout all eternity. It will be with me regardless of where I am: If I make my bed in hell,... if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,... this Father is ever with me. It is a Presence that never leaves me, a Power that always strengthens me, that goes before me to make the crooked places straight and the rough places plain. I feel Thy hand in mine. I know. I know that there is a Power that can do all things. I know that there is a Presence that can live my life for me, make my decisions, and show me the path of life. The whole kingdom of God is within me. Thou wilt never leave me nor forsake me; I can never doubt thy Presence. All this Thou hast revealed to me from within myself. I thank Thee, Father, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to me, a babe in truth, a beginner on the spiritual path. This practice of pondering a scriptural quotation is not too difficult for a beginner or too simple for an advanced student. As in the example given above, a central thought or quotation is used in an attempt to understand its inner meaning and to receive light on it, so that never again will it be used as a quotation or as a metaphysical cliche. These primary forms of meditation should be understood and practiced before the higher, more difficult forms are attempted. Let us remember that our object is to develop a state of receptivity to the still small voice. In meditation we do not think about our problem; we turn within and wait and wait and wait. We wait for three, four, or five minutes. If, at the end of that time, we have not felt a response within ourselves, we get up and go about our customary duties. An hour or two later we again meditate, waiting silently waiting until the voice of God utters Itself within us. The thoughts that race through our mind do not concern us; we are not interested in them. We are waiting until we feel the activity of the Christ stirring within us. If we do not feel the touch of the Christ within three or four minutes, we return to our daily tasks, but two or three hours later we meditate again. If it is necessary, we continue this practice for years; but if we are persistent, the day will come when